Geronimo's Story of His Life

"s STORY OF Hts LIFE

GERONIMO

GERONIMO’ S STORY OF HIS LIFE

is the oral life history of a legendary Apache warrior. Composed in 1905, while Geronimo was
being held as a U.S. prisoner of war at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Geronimo’s story found audience
and publication through the efforts of S. M. Barrett--Lawton, Oklahoma, Superintendent of
Education, who wrote in his preface that “the initial idea of the compilation of this work
was ... to extend to Geronimo as a prisoner of war the courtesy due any captive, 1.e. the right
to state the causes which impelled him in his opposition to our civilization and laws.” Barrett,
with the assistance of Asa Deklugie, son of Nedni chief Whoa as Apache translator, wrote
down the story as Geronimo told it — beginning with an Apache creation myth. Geronimo
recounted bloody battles with Mexican troopers, against whom he had vowed vengeance in
1858 after they murdered his mother, his wife, and his three small children. He told of treaties
made between Apaches and the U.S. Army--and treaties broken. There were periods of
confinement on the reservations, and escapes. And there were his final days on the run, when
the U.S. Army put 5000 men in the field against his small band of 39 Apache. Geronimo died
at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909, still a prisoner of war.

READ FOR LIBRIVOX BY SUE ANDERSON
TOTAL RUNNING TIME 5:48:50
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Cover image shows Geronimo in 1887, photographed by Ben Wittick (1845 — 1903).
Cover designed by Availle. This design is in the public domain.

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